Iced Beetroot and Gin Shots
The recent fitness frenzy had me considered juicing and I stumbled on another great recipe. The ideal drink for the African Festive season. The frenzy has moved on to looking at alternatives , healthy does not mean dull and skinny.
‘What’s good about this recipe is that it contains Vitamin C, and Vitamin G.’ Vitamin G being, of course, neat gin,’
Beetroot and Gin Shots
Beetroot and Gin Shots
6 large beetroot, or 12 smaller ones
For the stock:
1 stick celery, chopped
3 stalks parsley
a large carrot, scraped and roughly chopped
1 onion, peeled and quartered
1 clove
1 bay leaf
6 peppercorns
½ tsp (2.5 ml) caraway seeds
1 tsp (5 ml) salt
1.2 litres water
beetroot trimmings [see recipe]
To serve:
white pepper
1 tsp (5 ml) Tabasco sauce
300 ml gin, or more, to taste
small spring onions, trimmed
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Trim the leafy tops off the beetroot, leaving 5 cm of stalk intact. Wipe the beetroot with a cloth, but don’t wash, peel or cut them. Wrap them in a double layer of foil and place in the oven. Bake until completely tender when pierced with a sharp knife (how long this will take will depend on the size and age of the beetroot; for baby beetroot, an hour is enough. Very elderly beets can take up to 3 hours.) Remove the packet from the oven and allow to cool.
Put a piece of newspaper or greaseproof paper on your kitchen counter. Trim the beetroot of stalks and roots, slip off their skins, and set all these trimmings to one side. Quarter the peeled beetroot and place in the goblet of a liquidiser. Blitz until you have a fine purée (if the mixture is too thick for the blades to turn, add a little water). Pour into a large bowl and refrigerate. Now make the stock: put the reserved beetroot trimmings into a saucepan and add the remaining stock ingredients. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for an hour, topping up with water every now and then if necessary, and skimming off any foam.
Strain the stock through a colander onto the chilled beetroot purée. Add the Tabasco sauce and season with white pepper, and a little more salt, to taste. Stir well.
Now pass the soup through a fine sieve. Place in the fridge again and chill for two to three hours. An hour before serving, place the shot glasses and the gin in the freezer. Remove the soup from the fridge and stir in the cold gin. Put the soup into a jug with a sharp pouring nozzle and fill each glass almost to the brim. Add a spring onion to each glass. Serve immediately.
This recipe makes 36 shots of 60 ml (4 T) each, or two litres of soup (which will serve 8 people, as a starter).
For the full article which makes for some interesting reading see.Borscht in Small Glasses: Iced Beetroot and Gin Shots by Scrumptious South Africa
Tags: South Africa
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